In 'Hangarhalli' a village of Srirangapattana Taluka of Mandya District, Puttaswamy,
an ex-member of Mysore City Corporation, owns a stone quarry. Puttaswamy's son:
Arun Kumar and his son-in-law: Srinivas assisted by one Muniyappa are supervising
the said stone-quarry. Eighty members of twenty three families are working in
this stone quarry. Out of these sixteen are child-labourers. They work from
morning till evening. Seventy five percent of these people belong to Bovi caste
and the remaining are from other castes. Most of the people working here are
from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Mandya, Mysore Chamrajnagar Districts. These
details are not as significant as the plenty that has to ensue.

Venkatesh and his
son Gopal, Venkatachal, Nagraj as well as Krishna are five workers form this
querry. They had taken Advance money from the Quarry owner Puttaswamy as wages
for their labour. The treatment that Puttaswamy has meted out to these men is
so harrowingly inhuman that is hardly believable. They remained fettered with
24 kg. Iron chains which were welded around their legs. This was done purposely
to prevent them from escaping the clever dragnet set for them on the sheer plea
that they might abscond after taking the advance money.

These people had
to go for daily work along with the heavy shakles that they were wearing. Venkatesh
and his son Gopal from Katana village and Venkatachala from Kyatanahalli were
enchained for two years, whereas Nagraj was shackled six months back and Krishna
from Mogarallymenti for two months. They had to do this work with their chains
on.

Approximately sixteen
children were working as child Labourers from morning till evening and were
paid less than Rs 10/- per day. Sometimes the Goondas were engaged by Puttuswamy
to beat the parents of these children to make them to shudder and shrival. The
tiny hands of these children which would ordinarily be handling toys, pen and
paper were forced to adopt hammers for cruising stones. It is Puttuswamy who
mercilessly forced these innocent children to take to hammers.

The above named
bonded-labourers who were got freed from the clutches of these barbarians by
the Task Force of Karnataka Rajya Rayata Sangh in drastic campaign gave an account
of their gruesome experience in the following words:

If ever a worker
would proceed on leave of absence he would be heavily penalised. On the pretext
of variation in the grade of crushed stones we were denied wages for the whole
day and a fine of Rs 100/- was imposed on us.

If ever the parents
would go to clam down their sobbing children, they were beaten harshly.

Incase of any advance
payment compound interest was added to the Principal amount. Once a person fell
into this trap he could never hope to get himself extricated.

The volume of work
to be done per day was predetermined by the Employers, without any human considerations
and if we failed to reach the set target we would be denied our wages for the
whole day.

In this self styled
kingdom they were the sovereigns and every dictate of theirs was a word of law.
Anybody raising an objection or question would be tied up to a tree and beaten
ruthlessly.

A group of sycophants
was exclusively used for harassing us. We were compelled to tolerate all this
tyranny and to live in this hellish atmosphere.
Only now do we feel free to breathe".

It is a tragedy
that such a heinous crime was being committed in the District from which our
Hon'ble Chief Minister hails.

Why did the State
District Administration remain tongue tied for all these years, when the victims
who could not afford to absolve themselves of the so called debt, were living
in pathetic sub human conditions?

Were the local
Police, Labour Dept authorities and the Tehsildar completely ignorant about
what was happening under their very nose?

It is understood
that the Lease Permit of the Quarry in the name of Puttyswamy had already become
defunct as the date of Permit had already expired. How was it that though he
had permission for stone quarrying for only two acres, he had extended his quarrying
in an area of 7 to 8 acres? Why did the Govt. veaurocracy fail in its vigil
and how could they tolerate such a transgression of lawful rights.

It came to our
notice that the District and Taluka Administration had been negligent in their
duty and that they had acted most irresponsibly.

During 1993-94
'JEEVIKA' and N.G.O. identified twenty bonded labourers and sent a petition
to the Panchayat Raj Minister pleading for rehabilitation of all the bonded
labourers.

Even the National
Human Rights Commission in its Venugopal report exhorted that all these people
ought to be rehabilitated.

On the basis of
these recommendations the State Secretary of Panchayat Raj Dept. Issued a circular
on 30-3-99 to all the D.C.S. of 48 Taluqas ordering them to submit a Survey
repot about the number of bonded labour in their Taluqas.

On 30-9-99 Sh.Sanjay
Kumar, D.C. of Mandya Distt sent a report to Panchayati Raj Deptt. Stating that
no bonded labour existed in his District.

On 25-8-99 the
Tahsildar or Sri Rang Patna reported to A.C. of Pandavpura that no bonded labour
was found in his Taluqa.

On 2nd January,
1993 the State Government had allocated 120 acres of land in Mandya District
for turning this land into ten Agricultural Estates and that these estates were
to be used for the rehabilitation of freed bonded-labour.

But without proper
Enquirer they declared that there were no bonded labourers and they most irresponsibly
evaded the Government orders and failed to develop the land ear-marked by the
Government for the noble cause of rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers.
This neglect is really unpardonable.

We strongly denounce
and condemn such ignoble deeds and urge the Government to give immediate heed
to the following recommendations:

The Bonded Labour
Abolition Act should amended so that the crime of keeping bonded labour becomes
an unbailable and cognizable offence.

That the surveys
for locating bonded labour should not be conducted by the Government agencies
only. There should a provision made for cooping N.G.O sector and other activities
for conducting such surveys.

The District
Commissioner of Mandya District and other concerned authorities who failed
to give correct information should be reprimanded and castigated under rules.

The Govt should
appoint a higher level Committee comprising of both Govt. and N.G.Os for emancipation
of bonded labour.

A task force,
should be created to work for the liberation of bonded labourers, wherever
existing. This should include representative as N.G.O also.

Labour working
in quarries should be declared a labour belonging to unorganised sector and
should be given minimum wage, P.F., Gratuity, bonus and health maintenance
facilities.

Under the Provisions
of the Anti Child- Labour Act the Employer should be penalised by making him
pay Rs 20,000/- each to all the victimized sixteen children so that these
children are in a position to get requisite education.

That in all
the Districts of Karnataka, the land allotted for rehabilitating liberated
bonded labourers should be converted into Agricultural Estates and used for
the purpose of alleviating the miseries of these people.